By Iain Withers
LONDON (Reuters) -HSBC has offered about 18,000 of its branch, call centre and back office staff in Britain a 2,150 pound ($2,617) pay rise, as companies attempt to curb the impact of rampant inflation on their employees' finances.
The offer is similar to those made by rivals NatWest (LON:NWG) and Lloyds (LON:LLOY), as the sector looks to quickly ink pay deals with staff and swerve the industrial unrest sweeping Britain.
HSBC (LON:HSBA) offered the pay bump to staff on its two lowest pay grades after negotiations with union Unite, the union's national officer Dominic Hook told Reuters. It does not apply to all of the bank's 35,000 staff in Britain.
The bank has also proposed raising its minimum salary in Britain to 22,750 pounds a year.
A HSBC spokesperson confirmed the details of the offer.
Unite has not recommended the offer to staff. Union members at HSBC are being balloted on the terms, with a result expected in January.
"Whilst we haven't made as much progress as we would have liked to achieve an inflation-proof pay rise for all, over 20% of staff will be getting a pay rise of more than 10% and another 60% will be getting a pay rise of 8-10%," Hook said.
"We'll be pressing to make further improvements in future, both in HSBC and in all the high street banks."
Hook said he welcomed HSBC's move to increase its minimum salary, adding that this represented an increase of nearly a third from 17,290 pounds in March 2021.
($1 = 0.8214 pounds)